Hey,
I have my exercise package now which gives me a simple environment for
exercises. It squirrels away the answers in a \newbox to be recalled all
at once with an \unvbox at some later stage (some may remember that I
found the mysterious \bgroup and \egroup commands to achieve this after
hacking another exercise package, together with an indecent amount of
swearing at the screen one evening).
So I now have my exercises but the vertical space between them remains a
problem. I've had a look at the amsthm package and found these lines...
+++
\newskip\theorempreskipamount
\newskip\theorempostskipamount
\global\setlength\theorempreskipamount{12pt plus 5pt minus 3pt}
\global\setlength\theorempostskipamount{8pt plus 3pt minus 1.5pt}